The trade: The Philadelphia Phillies acquired RHP Noah Syndergaard from the Los Angeles Angels for OF Mickey Moniak and OF Jadiel Sanchez.
Syndergaard is not the pitcher you may remember from his Mets heyday, when he earned the "Thor" nickname due to his long hair, intimidating presence and triple-digit fastball. He still has the hair, but the 100-mph fastball is now a 94-mph sinker, reduced through injuries that cost him most of the 2017 season and Tommy John surgery that cost him almost all of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
How much does the move help the Phillies' rotation? Let's grade the deal.
This season, 111 pitchers have thrown at least 75 innings -- and Syndergaard is one of them, with 80 innings. He ranks just 83rd in strikeout rate and 74th in swing-and-miss rate. It's not exactly fair to call him a finesse pitcher, but he has become much more of a pitch-to-contact guy. The Angels have also been very cautious in his usage. Due to Shohei Ohtani's presence in the rotation, the Angels have gone with a six-man rotation, so Syndergaard hasn't pitched on four days of rest all season -- and only three of his 15 starts have come on five days.
So there is some risk on how Syndergaard will perform with a more truncated schedule between starts. However, given the state of the Phillies' rotation, once you get past Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, Syndergaard could still line up as their No. 3 starter in a playoff series, ahead of Kyle Gibson or Ranger Suarez. At least the Phillies did upgrade their outfield defense with the acquisition of outfielder Brandon Marsh, who will take over in center field and give them their best defensive outfielder in years.
The question Phillies fans will ask: Why not the likes of Luis Castillo, Frankie Montas or Tyler Mahle? Simple: The Phillies didn't have the farm system depth to acquire one of those starters. They understandably weren't going to trade Mick Abel or Andrew Painter, the two highly regarded pitching prospects taken in the first round in 2020 and 2021. The farm system drops off rapidly after those two, with catcher Logan O'Hoppe going to the Angels for Marsh.
Anyway, the Phillies didn't give up much here and did add some much-needed rotation depth.
Grade: C+
Well, in retrospect, that one-year, $21 million contract for Syndergaard didn't exactly hit the 80th percentile of projections, which is kind of what the Angels were paying him to reach. Since he's owed about $7 million the rest of the way, this was really a salary dump more than anything.
Moniak is the name you may have heard of -- the first overall pick in the 2016 draft, viewed at the time as a plus defender with an excellent hit tool. It wasn't a great draft and Moniak was hardly a slam-dunk choice, but the bat just hasn't developed. He's probably just a fourth or fifth outfielder, if that, at this point. He's 24, so you never know, but he's hit .129 in 93 career major league at-bats.
Sanchez is a 21-year-old switch-hitter in Low-A ball hitting .239/.289/.437. He's put some good exit velocities in the minors, but he's played just 28 games in 2021 and just 38 this year. So, despite his natural power, he remains raw and is light years away from the majors. There may be something here, but the risk factor is as extreme as it gets.